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Oscar Nominations: 2024

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BEST PICTURE

Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked

BEST DIRECTOR

Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez 
James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

BEST ACTRESS

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

BEST ACTOR

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Yura Borisov, Anora
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Jay Cocks and Jay Mangold, A Complete Unknown
Peter Straughan, Conclave
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, Sing Sing

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, and Alex David, September 5
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked

BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP

A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist
Volker Bertelmann, Conclave
John Powell and Stephen Schwartz, Wicked
Clément Ducol and Camille, Emilia Pérez
Kris Bowers, The Wild Robot

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

“A Lien”
“Anuja”
“I’m Not a Robot”
“The Last Ranger”
“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

“Beautiful Men”
“In the Shadow of the Cypress”
“Magic Candies”
“Wander to Wonder”
“Yuck!”

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“El Mal,” Emilia Pérez
“The Journey,” The Six Triple Eight
“Like a Bird,” Sing Sing
“Mi Camino,” Emilia Pérez
“Never Too Late,” Elton John: Never Too Late

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Black Box Diaries
No Other Land
Porcelain Wars
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

“Death by Numbers”
“I Am Ready, Warden”
“Incident”
“Instruments of a Beating Heart”
“The Only Girl in the Orchestra”

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

I’m Still Here, Brazil
The Girl with the Needle, Denmark
Emilia Pérez, France
The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Germany
Flow, Latvia

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked

BEST EDITING

Sean Baker, Anora
Dávid Jancsó, The Brutalist
Nick Emerson, Conclave
Juliette Welfling, Emilia Pérez
Myron Kerstein, Wicked

BEST SOUND

A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two
Paul Guilhaume, Emilia Pérez
Edward Lachman, Maria
Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu

Netflix Movie Review: Back in Action

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The new movie “Back in Action” starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx has been waiting for release for almost 2 years due to the Pandemic and Jamie Foxx nearly dying of a stroke in April 2023.

The problem with this movie is that the entire premise has been done so many times, most recently twice by Mark Wahlberg in “The Union” (2024) and “The Family Plan” (2023), where a husband or a husband and wife are keeping their previous life as CIA spies from everyone they know. Then something happens and they have to reveal their past to everyone. Considering the vast creative resources that Netflix has, it is surprising that this idea, produced too many times already, was done again. Cameron Diaz has been retired from acting since 2014, it is also surprising that she would take this boring run of the mill movie, rather than waiting for something much better.

There is an appearance made later in the movie of actress Glen Close in a forgettable role that we have seen many times before – continuing the theme of this movie which is nothing new, nothing memorable, seen this already.

This time around the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are an extremely low 24% and I agree with this number and do not recommend this very forgettable two hours.

Movie Review: The Last Showgirl

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The new movie “The Last Showgirl” is a very small and depressing film about an aging Las Vegas showgirl, Shelly, played by Pamela Anderson, who is 57 and a member of a long-running Las Vegas show that is going out of business. As the expression goes, “Father time is undefeated”, even more for a woman whose entire professional identity depends on her looks.

The obvious problem with this movie is that the story is not big enough to hold your attention for the entire 88 minutes There are way too many slow and boring parts in this flawed overly depressing screenplay. The side stories contain some brief appearances of new characters, including Shelly’s daughter Hanna played by Billie Lourd, who suddenly comes into Shelly’s life after many years. We later find out that Hanna’s father is the manager of the Las Vegas venue, Eddie played by Dave Bautista, who has a small part in this movie.

The other main character is Annette, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who is a waitress at a local Casino. Along with her extremely dark facial tan, and many wrinkles, Curtis looks way older than 66, her age in real life. Annette is a character that seems to be a method to provide more filler to a relatively short movie and is mostly irrelevant to the progress of this story.

There is a scene at the end where Shelly as an aging showgirl standing on a stage lying about her age, desperate to get a new dancing job in Las Vegas, begging a cruel show director for a chance but is repeatedly rejected. After the producer tells Shelly that “her time as an attractive woman has passed”, Shelly’s response to the director is at first lewd and later a sad rant in a dressing room some minutes later, collapsing in grief, knowing that the only life she has ever known is over. If Pamela Anderson receives an Oscar nomination for this small movie, this scene will be the reason.

Pamela Anderson winning an Oscar for this role would be an amazing moment in Oscar history, however, this is very unlikely because this movie is not significant enough to include a win for Best Actress.

For some of the acting, despite the depressing small story, my rating for this movie is a passable 70% and a moderate recommendation.